A neighbourhood has been hit by a recent "depressing" trend of people dumping beds and mattresses out on the streets. 

Residents have taken several pictures of furniture left on roadsides in Harrow since the start of the year – and they want action from Harrow Council.  

Chris Pelling, who lives in Harrow, said he came across a mattress, as well as a number of bags of rubbish, during a "short walk" around the town centre. 

A similar problem was spotted by Headstone North councillor Christopher Baxter, who reported a mattress that had been dumped along a main road in his area. 

Cllr Baxter said: "It’s disappointing that this continues to happen. It’s depressing for the area and shows a lack of respect for the people living there. 

"There’s absolutely no reason for this to happen. This is a busy road and someone’s dragged a mattress and what looks like half a bed and just left it there. 

"It does seem as if there’s been a bit of a spike in the new year, but let’s hope this doesn’t continue for long."

Cllr Baxter added: "Some of this is done by people who would fly-tip regardless – obviously that’s an issue that needs addressing. 

"But people could be struggling with bulky waste and one solution would be to offer a free collection service. 

"The council should offer as much support as possible and this is something that we would pledge going into May (elections).”

The lead councillor for enforcement in Harrow, Cllr Peymana Assad, said: "The Labour administration at the council has made an investment of £300,000 into our enforcement team that deals with tackling fly-tipping.

"This means extra staff and moving to an area-based strategy that looks at hotspot areas across Harrow that are some of the most problematic fly-tipping areas.

"With more staff, we’ve issued more fines in these places where we’ve found evidence of the perpetrators and have used the money collected to clear up problem areas – for example the service road in Wealdstone known as ‘mattress mountain’.

"Ultimately we want to make sure people take responsibility for the place they live in by getting rid of their waste responsibly otherwise the council will be issuing fines and will go as far as taking repeat fly-tippers to court.

"Our investment is costed to make sure the council has a balanced budget and also meets the needs of residents in other areas such as social care."